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Fact Check: Romney-Ryan ‘pants on fire’ – the $700 billion lie that will not die
August 15, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Even after every media fact check organization in America has rated the GOP claim that Democrats cut $500 billion from Medicare benefits a "pants on fire" lie repeatedly since 2010, my summary here Fact Check: The NRCC's 'pants on fire' – the $500 billion lie that will not die, the GOP and "Galt – Gekko 2012" campaign have doubled-down on the lie and increased the amount to $716 billion.
ABC News has fact checked the latest Romney-Ryan version of the lie that will not die. FACT CHECK: Obama, Ryan, Romney Backed Medicare Cuts:
One way or another, Barack Obama, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney all have supported the $700 billion in cuts to Medicare spending now in place under the Affordable Care Act.
But you wouldn’t know that by listening to the current debate.
The Romney-Ryan campaign in its latest TV ad assails Obama for approving the cuts in 2010. “Obama has cut $716 billion dollars from Medicare,” says the narrator. “The money you paid for your guaranteed health care…is going to a massive new government program that’s not for you.”
Voters might be left with the impression that Romney and Ryan have both opposed the cuts. The truth is that Ryan himself endorses them in his signature budget plan – the same plan Romney has said he would sign as president if it reached his desk.
Those Medicare savings -achieved through reduced provider reimbursements and curbed waste, fraud and abuse, not benefit cuts – appear in the House Republicans’ FY 2013 budget, which Ryan authored.
His plan would in part repeal the entirety of the Affordable Care Act — except the reductions in Medicare spending now at the center of debate, according to analysts with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
Where Romney and Ryan find shelter for their new line of attack is in what they claim they’d do with the savings. As the ad suggests, they don’t want the money to underwrite Obamacare, but for deficit reduction or other spending instead [tax expenditures, i.e., tax cuts for the 2%.]
* * *
But in an added twist through all of this – further complicating the picture in a way that voters might not be aware – Romney asserts that the Romney-Ryan ticket is running on his budget proposal, not Ryan’s, and he would restore those cuts.
In other words, Romney wants to restore "waste, fraud and abuse" to Medicare to benefit insurance companies and medical providers.
The ‘Foxification’ of the ‘news’ with manufactured outrage of the day
August 15, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Tuesday was one of those days that, in a just world, there would have been a mass firing of everyone in the corporate media.
The "Foxification" of the "news" with manufactured outrage of the day, a technique perfected by FAUX News Fraudcasting, is an insidious disease that has infected the entire corporate "lamestream" media, who mindlessly parrot Faux News.
So what was the outrage of the day on Tuesday? Vice President Joe Biden said "chains" instead of "shackles." No, really. The media villagers might want to purchase a dictionary and a thesaurus.
Here is how our sad small town newspaper the Arizona Daily Star and its creative headline writer maximized this manufactured outrage with a report from AP (All Propaganda) reporter Matthew Daly (you bet I looked you up). Republicans want to 'put y'all back in chains,' says Biden. Check out Mr. Daly's lede:
Vice President Joe Biden sparked a campaign commotion Tuesday, telling an audience in southern Virginia that included hundreds of black voters that Republican Mitt Romney wanted to put them "back in chains" by deregulating Wall Street.
Do much work for the right-wing noise machine, Mr. Daly? Here is the context which explains Mr. Daly's outrageously inflammatory lede:
Campaigning in Danville, Biden said the Republican ticket wanted to "unchain Wall Street" by getting rid of regulations Obama signed into law two years ago. He added: "They're going to put y'all back in chains."
So Mr. Daly takes the fact that the audience includes hundreds of African-American voters whom we can assume (a) are Democrats who support the Obama-Biden campaign, and (b) are intelligent voters who understand the context that Joe Biden is talking about servitude to the corporatocracy and the banksters of Wall Street. Only this hack reporter Matthew Daly injects a racial connotation into the remarks which make no sense in context.
The Galt – Gekko 2012 campaign’s ‘secret plan’
August 15, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Oh, hell no! I have seen this movie before and I know how it ends. Remember Tricky Dick Nixon's "secret plan" to end the Vietnam war in 1968? (by waging a "secret" war in Cambodia and Laos). Well, the "Galt – Gekko 2012" campaign today said they don't have to disclose no stinkin' details to … Read more
Pennsylvania judge rules in favor of Jim Crow – appeal to follow
August 15, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The state of Pennsylvania stipulated to the facts that it has no evidence of voter impersonation at the polls and that it does not expect any voter impersonation at the polls this November. Dozens of witnesses testified how they do not have state issued photo ID and Pennsylvania makes it difficult and expensive for them to obtain photo ID (a violation of the 24th Amendment prohibiting poll taxes), which will disenfranchise them of their fundamental constitutional right to vote for no other reason than they do not possess a photo ID. A no brainer, right? Or so every rational human being thought.
A Republican Pennsylvania state court judge today disregarded the overwhelming weight of the evidence and disregarded fundamental constitutional rights by ruling in favor of Pennsylvania Tea-Publican's Jim Crow voter suppression law. Judge won't halt Pa. voter identification law:
A tough new voter identification law championed by Republicans can take effect in Pennsylvania for November's presidential election, a judge ruled Wednesday, despite a torrent of criticism that it will suppress votes among President Barack Obama's supporters and make it harder for the elderly, disabled, poor and young adults to vote.
Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson said he would not grant an injunction that would have halted the law, which requires each voter to show a valid photo ID. Opponents are expected to file an appeal within a day or two to the state Supreme Court as the Nov. 6 election looms.
"We're not done, it's not over," said Witold J. Walczak, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who helped argue the case for the plaintiffs. "It's why they make appeals courts."
Joe the Plumber Talked About More Than Shootin’ Him Some Wetbacks at the Lori Klein Rally
August 15, 2012
by Michael Bryan
You might have already heard about Sam "Joe the Plumber" Wurtzelbacher's assinine comment at two different events here in Arizona about putting troops on the border and shooting illegal immigrants. He and Lori Klein have chosen to claim that he was just joking. Watch the video of the event yourself (starting at about 2:10 into the video) and see what you think. That he made is comments in a perfectly serious tone, prefaced by the statement that politicians should "say what they mean," and followed by the assertion that it would "solve our immigration problem real quick," makes it seem not so jokey. But that's not even half the stupid shit he said.
In the video of one of the events (start at 4:45 for this gem…), you will see Joe/Sam practically say that Jews are behind a plot to weaken America through the media by enforcing 'political correctness'. What he actually says is that prior to WWII "this think tank" of emigres came from Germany to Washington D.C. and Hollywood to spread communism. Now who does that sound like, to you? Joe/Sam just clumsily dog-whistled anti-semitism right here in our backyard.
Next Joe/Sam says the "Federal government can go stick it" (he's only running to be a member of that government, after all…) and claims that "the Federal government cannot, and it's obvious, run the country." What, huh? So why do you want to join that team, Joe/Sam?
The man is a racist, a dangerous reactionary, an anti-semite, and an incoherent fool. He's the perfect GOP candidate!
Watch the idiocy yourself after the click…
They’re baaack! Tea-Publican lawsuits against the AIRC
August 15, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
A follow-up to an earlier post, AIRC Update: Tea-Publican deadbeats sue the AIRC with your tax dollars to overturn Prop. 106 that created the AIRC:
The Tea-Publican controlled legislature is suing the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC), arguing that the voter approved Proposition 106 (2000) to the state constitution that created the AIRC violates the U.S. Constitution. And even though only Tea-Publicans argue this for their partisan political advantage, they are using your tax dollars to overturn the will of the voters.
The parties are now filing their pleadings. Howard Fischer reports, in only the way he can, Arizona redistricting commission argues state legislators shouldn't draw Congressional lines – East Valley Tribune:
Members of the Independent Redistricting Commission want a federal judge to rule that state lawmakers are wrong in saying only they get to draw lines for congressional districts.
In legal papers filed in U.S. District Court, attorneys for the commission acknowledge that the U.S. Constitution does say that the manner of selecting members of Congress "shall be prescribed in each state by the Legislature.'' And it was the commission created the maps used last decade and again last year for the coming decade.
The lawyers, however, told Judge Paul Rosenblatt that process is legal.
AZ Supreme Court tells Ken ‘Birther’ Bennett that Quality Education and Jobs initiative may appear on the ballot
August 15, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Arizona Secretary of State Ken "Birther" Bennett continues to have a really bad summer. His attempt to prevent the Quality Education and Jobs initiative from appearing on the ballot through his own filing requirement that is not part of any statutory law was rejected by the Arizona Supreme Court. Arizona sales-tax hike can … Read more
Anniversary of the Social Security Act
August 14, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: While the Arizona Daily Star is publishing a four-part series from the AP (All Propaganda) on social security that is propaganda for the "grand bargain" of the failed "Catfood Commission" (Simpson-Bowles chairmen's mark report) to slash social security and Medicare benefits as part of a deficit reduction deal, you might want to … Read more
